Includes: The contests are the same as the regular issue however the cover is a one-of-a-kind made by an artist friend of Smartish Pace. The covers are made of everything from oil paint to collage. Watch the making of the covers. Trust us, you will love it; everyone gets a different cover!

Includes: The contests are the same as the regular issue however the cover is a one-of-a-kind made by an artist friend of Smartish Pace. The covers are made of everything from oil paint to collage. Watch the making of the covers. Trust us, you will love it; no two covers are the same!

My Father\'s Words

Shara McCallum

Once I was alone
so my father came to me,
told me the meaning
of flowers that open
by day, close their petals
at night to hide their face
from true light, flowers
that cannot brave
their own darkness.

Once my father was a night
I mistook for salvation,
a voice I mistook for myself.
Once my father
was a bird with wings of longing
and despair, a field of words
blossoming in my ear,
telling me: my child,
this is all there is.

Shara McCallum is the author of The Water Between Us (1999) and Song of Thieves (2003), both published by the University of Pittsburg Press. She lives in central Pennsylvania, where she directs the Stadler Center for Poetry and teaches at Bucknell University. Her poetry appears in Smartish Pace, Issues 5 and 13. [bio updated 2006]